The Bixby Marketplace goes live in the US and South Korea

It has categories, it has apps like Google Maps, but it is not Google Play: please welcome the Bixby Marketplace, Samsung's "one-stop shop for users to browse and add a wide range of services (known as capsules) to enhance their Bixby experience."

Only available in the US and South Korea for the time being, the Bixby Marketplace features quite a few popular apps and services, but all are now labeled "capsules" despite the fact they are about the same pieces of code one would get from Google Play. The list of such apps — call them capsules, if you want — includes Google Maps, iHeartRadio, Yelp, Spotify, and many more.

The list of categories that can be found inside Bixby Marketplace includes Music and audio, Photography, Business and finance, Local, Productivity, Games and fun, Communication, and so on. Obviously, one can easily access the Bixby Marketplace by pressing the Bixby key, although a left swipe is also needed to get to Samsung's latest piece of code.

According to Samsung, developers will continue to add more capsules to the platform over the next few months. More Bixby Marketplace-related updates will be shared at the end of October, when the Samsung Developer Conference 2019 (SDC19) is scheduled to take place in San Jose, California.

What do you think about Samsung's new label for apps? Is "capsule" confusing or a smart (and needed) name refresh for the rather old "app" moniker? Does Samsung really need another marketplace?